2 Samuel 23:18

18 Abisai quoque frater Ioab filius Sarviae princeps erat de tribus ipse est qui elevavit hastam suam contra trecentos quos interfecit nominatus in tribus

2 Samuel 23:18 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 23:18

And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was
chief among the three
Another triumvirate, of which he was the head:

and he lifted up his spear against three hundred, [and] slew [them];
Josephus ^F5 says six hundred; this seems to confirm the reading of ( 2 Samuel 23:8 ) , that the number eight hundred is right, for if it was only three hundred, Abishai would have been equal to one, even the first, of the former three; which yet is denied him in ( 2 Samuel 23:19 ) :

and had the name among three;
of which he was one; and he had the chief name among them, or was the most famous of them.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F5 Antiqu. l. 7. c. 12. sect. 4.

2 Samuel 23:18 In-Context

16 inruperunt ergo tres fortes castra Philisthinorum et hauserunt aquam de cisterna Bethleem quae erat iuxta portam et adtulerunt ad David at ille noluit bibere sed libavit illam Domino

17 dicens propitius mihi sit Dominus ne faciam hoc num sanguinem hominum istorum qui profecti sunt et animarum periculum bibam noluit ergo bibere haec fecerunt tres robustissimi

18 Abisai quoque frater Ioab filius Sarviae princeps erat de tribus ipse est qui elevavit hastam suam contra trecentos quos interfecit nominatus in tribus

19 et inter tres nobilior eratque eorum princeps sed usque ad tres primos non pervenera

20 et Banaias filius Ioiada viri fortissimi magnorum operum de Capsehel ipse percussit duos leones Moab et ipse descendit et percussit leonem in media cisterna diebus nivis